World Elephant Day: Ensuring jumbo conservation amid habitat destruction

This is especially true in the South Karnataka area, which, according to the results of the 2017 census, was home to roughly 6,049 free-ranging elephants in the wild and has the greatest concentration of elephants in the state.
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New Delhi: World Elephant Day is observed on August 12 every year. The day calls attention to the difficult work of preserving the jumbos and protecting them in the face of habitat disruption.
According to a report by The Hindu, this is especially true in the South Karnataka area, which, according to the results of the 2017 census, was home to roughly 6,049 free-ranging elephants in the wild and has the greatest concentration of elephants in the state.
While an increase in elephant populations raises the possibility that their population is not on the verge of extinction, it also raises concerns about the potential rise in conflict because of habitat disruption and devastation brought on by linear projects.
The Forest Department has a difficult work ahead of them in balancing conservation on the one hand and reducing human-elephant conflict on the other, as they deal with conflict situations in and around the Nagarahole, Bandipur, Kodagu, and Hassan-Sakleshpur belts.
The agency has caught and rehabilitated 74 wild animals in the previous 22 years in the Hassan division alone, but at that same time, there have been many more elephant deaths from both natural and manmade causes, The Hindu reported.
According to the Karnataka Forest Department's records, 79 elephants died in the state in 2021, 17 of which were due to non-natural causes including electrocution and poaching.
During 2021–22, 40 people died as a result of human-animal conflict in the 14 forest rings scattered across 30 districts (although not all of them were caused by elephants), The Hindu reported.
There have been 11 elephant deaths in 2022, 10 of which were caused by natural causes, according to data accessible up through May. However, four or five more elephants in the Kodagu area have died from electrocution in the past month alone, and when combined with data from other locations, the number of elephant deaths from non-natural causes will rise.
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